Onboarding is meant to set employees up for success in the company. However, a surprising 54% of workers said they’ve experienced one mishap when starting a new job, according to a recent survey by OfficeTeam. Here’s how the results stacked up:

SOURCE: OfficeTeam

Yet despite everything, 50% of HR managers actually believe their company’s onboarding process is very effective. Do we sense some miscommunication here? Or perhaps managers are just unaware of what an effective onboarding process actually looks like.

Benefits of Effective Onboarding

Starting a new job is like moving to a new country: there’s a whole different culture that you have to get accustomed to, you have to find out what the norms are, and you have to learn to speak the language.

Robert Hosking, Executive Director of OfficeTeam, told us:

“The first few weeks on the job are when new employees establish attitudes about the position, coworkers, management, and the company itself.When new hires are quickly brought up to speed on the corporate culture and introduced to colleagues, they’ll feel comfortable and like they fit in from the start. Getting the tools and information they need to do their jobs also means they can begin actively contributing.”

The Disconnect

HR's role in onboarding is making sure the new hire has completed the necessary paperwork and isfamiliar with the company's policies. The reason why HR managers believe their organization's onboarding process is effective is easy: they got the new hire to fill out and sign the paperwork.

But in actuality, the onboarding process falls on the shoulders of their direct managers. These are the people who are going to make sure the new hire has all of the necessary equipment, gets introduced to coworkers, and is shown the ropes around the company.

And that's the disconnect. HR managers believe onboarding is all about getting paperwork complete. Direct managers believe onboarding is up to HR, when in fact, managers are responsible for getting their new hire up to speed and equipped with all the tools they need to be successful.